H-V Chamber to hold Ribbon Cutting for Schewels Furniture

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Mark your Calendar! Schewel Furniture Company, Inc. is having a Ribbon Cutting.

Please join the Chamber Board and staff for a “120-Year Anniversary Celebration” and ribbon cutting for Schewel Furniture Company, Inc.   The community is invited to come out and meet the warm friendly staff, show your support, and learn all about this local business. The event begins at 10:00 AM on Tuesday, February 21st at their 940 South Beckford Drive location in Henderson.

Enjoy some light refreshments and get the chance to win a special prize!

A little history

When Elias Schewel, a Russian immigrant, began peddling household goods in a horse and buggy in 1897, he could hardly have imagined that his fledgling enterprise would have grown to 52 stores in three states.  Today the company he founded is owned and operated by his fourth generation descendants, Marc Schewel and Jack Schewel.

The Schewels Difference

Thanks to our 600 dedicated employees, Schewels is able to continue the long tradition of bringing our customers the quality, service, and values that were the hallmark of our founder’s early success.

One of our founder’s ideas was to allow customers to pay for their purchases over a period of several months, and today, over 100 years later, Schewels offers a flexible credit plan to suit your budget. Schewels carries all accounts in-house, and you deal only with an experienced credit counselor on-site in each of our stores.

With 52 stores, Schewels tremendous buying power enables us to shop globally and bring to all our markets the best in home furnishings values. Operational efficiencies enables us to offer you our products at low, competitive prices.  In addition to home furnishings, every Schewels carries a full line of bedding, appliances, electronics, outdoor power equipment, and decorative area rugs. You can find more than half of Schewels appliances reviewed and rated on unclutterer.

Schewels carries well-known, respected, famous brands like Bassett, La-Z-Boy, Corinthian, Simmons, Frigidaire, GE, Samsung, Panasonic, LG, Troy-Bilt, MTD, Simmons, and Spring Air.

Schewels wants you to be satisfied with your purchase. All home furnishings have a warranty for one year from date of purchase for manufacturers’ defects. See store for details.

For more information, please call 252-492-7066 or check them out on the web at www.schewel.com.

VGCC President honors English department

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The president of Vance-Granville Community College, Dr. Stelfanie Williams, recently recognized a group of faculty members for excellence by awarding the “Vanguard Cup” to the college’s English department.

The department became just the second recipient of the cup, an honor created by Dr. Williams to recognize “exceptional team performance toward the college mission, vision and strategic plan.”

In this case, the English department was particularly noted for developing a strategy to improve students’ writing skills, which would in turn help them be more successful in all of their college courses. “The English faculty developed a new course with dedicated labs in an attempt to improve student success,” Dr. Williams said.

“In the first semester of implementation, the students improved, and by the spring semester, the English 111A course held a 100% course success rate,” the president noted. “This means that students are better prepared for their fields and for university transfer. The faculty in the English department are to be commended for their innovative efforts to help VGCC students.”

David Wyche, chair of the VGCC English department, added, “I’m grateful for this recognition of the creativity and hard work that these English instructors contribute in countless ways every day.”

He said that two former colleagues also deserved credit. “The English 111A lab is the legacy of Biology instructor Button Brady’s vision. She saw a need and worked tirelessly to meet it before she retired,” Wyche said. “Former instructor Bridget Bell created English 111A and taught it until the birth of her second child, when she decided to devote more of her time to being a mom. I am indebted to both of them.”

The English department is a unit of the VGCC division of Arts and Sciences, which offers courses that transfer to four-year colleges and universities as well as general education for students in all of the college’s curriculum programs.

–VGCC–

Vance County Schools Update 02/13/17

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Vance County 4-H To Offer Poultry Show Interest Meeting

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You’re Invited To The 2017 Poultry Show and Sale Interest Meeting.

4 County 4-H Poultry Show & Sale

If you ever wanted to learn how to raise your own chickens, now is your chance!

All children ages 5-18 are invited to join us at 6:30 PM at the Vance County Regional Farmer’s Market (210 Southpark Dr, Henderson, NC 27536) to discuss plans for the 2017 Four County 4-H Poultry Show and Sale.  A free dinner will be served, so RSVP with your county Extension Office!

Interested?

Please Contact Turner Pride with any questions and concerns.

Available via phone (252) 438-8188 and email at tapride@ncsu.edu.

Join Vance County 4-H Today!

Vance County Cooperative Extension Center, 305 Young St, Henderson, NC 27536

Henderson Residents Asked to Conserve Water Starting Wednesday

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PRESS RELEASE: 13 February 2017

The City of Henderson/ Kerr Lake Regional Water System will begin repair on a 36” water main just outside the water plant beginning at 12:00 a.m. on the morning of February 15, 2017.

Due to the repair procedure it will be necessary to shut the main off to replace the pipe.

The plant will continue to produce and distribute the water through the existing 24” main parallel water main.  While there should be no disruption of service during this time, we do ask customers to practice conservation of water during this time and not to use fire hydrants except for emergency purposes.

It is anticipated that the 36” main will be back in service later in the day on the 16th.

Should you have any questions concerning this repair please contact Christy Lipscomb, KLRWP Director at 252-438-2142.

 

Esther J. McCrackin

City Clerk – City of Henderson, NC

134 Rose Avenue

P.O. Box 1434

Henderson, NC 27536

E.O. Young Elementary Celebrates Successful Science and Spaghetti Night

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Vance County Schools

For Immediate Release

February 13, 2017

E.O. Young Jr. Elementary School celebrated science during a special Science and Spaghetti Night event on Thursday, February 9, at the school.

The evening featured parents and students visiting classrooms and participating in science experiments and activities led by teachers.

Students in third grade and fifth grade won honors with their science projects.

Capturing top honors in the third grade were Aaliyah Alenlain, first place; Devan Markham, second place; La’Niyah Terry, tied for third place; and Canaan Evans, tied for third place. They are shown in the first accompanying photo, from right to left, with their projects.

The fifth-grade winners included: Nathaniel Durham, first place; Kendall Sizemore, second place; Nathan Richardson, tied for third place; and Mason Pendergrass, tied for third place. Durham is shown in the second accompanying photo with his project.

Richardson and Pendergrass are shown in the third photo from right to left. Sizemore was unavailable for a photo.

Foundation creates scholarship for VGCC students in memory of Vance County native

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The Watkins Family Foundation, created by the estate of Vance County native Edward Tarry Watkins, has donated $25,000 to the Vance-Granville Community College Endowment Fund to endow a scholarship to help underprivileged women.

The donation to VGCC is actually the first made by the newly-established, Houston, Texas-based foundation, according to Meghan Watkins Thompson, a granddaughter of Watkins.

“I recall that my grandfather would always tell me, ‘you educate the woman, you educate the family,’” Thompson said.

Among family members who remain in the Henderson area is Watkins’ nephew, George Rose Watkins, who has also endowed a scholarship through the VGCC Endowment Fund to help students and regularly plays in the college’s annual benefit golf tournament. His family’s company, Rose Oil, is also a longtime supporter of VGCC and other community organizations.

“The Watkins Family Foundation was created specifically for the education of underprivileged women,” Thompson added. “George and I appreciate Vance-Granville making Ed’s wish a reality.”

This new scholarship will be a “Presidential Scholar Award,” the college’s largest, most prestigious level of endowed scholarship.

“The Edward Tarry Watkins Memorial Presidential Scholar Award represents the lasting legacy of a generous man who never forgot his hometown and demonstrated the same dedication to service and philanthropy as other members of his extended family,” said Dr. Stelfanie Williams, the president of VGCC. “For generations to come, his vision will empower women to obtain the higher education they need to support themselves, their families and their communities.”

Ed Watkins, or “Bitz,” as he was called by his family, was born in Henderson in 1919, the son of William Thomas and Nannie Tarry Watkins. A 1940 Davidson College graduate, he joined the Army Air Corps after college and moved from North Carolina to Texas, serving as a bombardier flight instructor and also working with Minneapolis Honeywell to couple the Norden bombsight to the B-17 autopilot. Watkins retired from active duty in 1949 as a lieutenant colonel.

He and his wife, Hazel, moved to Houston in 1951, where he worked for Merrill Lynch before founding his own brokerage and investment advisory firm, Watkins & Company, Inc.

Active in his community and a supporter of many social and charitable causes, Watkins supported the Embassy Square Foundation in its development of the Perry Memorial Library in downtown Henderson. He and a friend also helped to establish a technical school for underprivileged children in Kun-Ming, China.

After passing away in July 2006 at the age of 87, he was buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Henderson.

Through the Endowment Fund, VGCC has awarded more than 8,800 scholarships to students since 1982. Scholarships have been endowed by numerous individuals, industries, businesses, civic groups, churches and the college’s faculty and staff. Tax-deductible donations to the VGCC Endowment Fund have often been used to honor or remember a person, group, business or industry with a lasting gift to education. For more information about the Endowment Fund, call (252) 738-3409.

–VGCC–

News 02/10/17

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NCDOL Warns Employers of Poster Scam

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NEWS RELEASE

Release: Immediate

Contact: Jason Tyson

Date: Feb. 9, 2017

Phone: 919-715-3233

 

Raleigh—The N.C. Department of Labor is urging businesses across the state to be on the lookout for suspicious correspondence, after the department recently received multiple reports of persons using scare tactics or threatening language in an attempt to sell labor law posters to employers.

“These scams surface several times a year and businesses will contact us,” Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry said. “The threats of fines are bogus and should be ignored. The Department of Labor provides free sets of labor law posters to businesses.”

The scammers will often pose as either government officials or as acting on behalf of a poster company, such as the North Carolina Labor Law Poster Service, a non-regulatory entity that does not operate under any government agency. Other names these companies are known to go by include Personnel Concepts and Labor Law Compliance. There have been reports of these companies threatening fines from $7,000 to as much as $17,000 for non-compliance. Mailings can often appear to be from an official source and request fees for posters that cost anywhere from $84 to $200. Businesses should be aware that scammers may also attempt to contact them by either email, text or by phone.

While labor law posters are required to be displayed at a workplace by law, NCDOL inspectors carry the most up-to-date versions of the posters in their vehicles and will distribute them free of charge. The N.C. Department of Labor will never fine a business that has older versions of the poster displayed.

The NCDOL will print new versions anytime a significant law is changed or updated by Congress. Businesses are not required to order a new poster each time a change is made.  Employers that wish to order new posters can visit www.nclabor.com/posters/posters.htm or can call 1-800-625-2267.

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News 02/09/17

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